Malaysia maintains freeze on foreign worker quotas despite Bangladesh crisis - MEF

SHAH ALAM - The Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) has confirmed that the current freeze on new foreign worker quotas, including those from Bangladesh, remains in place despite ongoing political instability in the country.

Its president Dr Syed Hussain Syed Husman said the political instability in Bangladesh has had minimal impact on foreign worker recruitment in Malaysia.

This, he said was due to the country nearing the 15 per cent foreign worker cap set in the 12th Malaysia Plan (RMK12).

"Employers with an active quota were given the dateline of May 31, 2024 to bring in their foreign workers.

"With the general freeze on recruitment of foreign workers there are no new activities to bring in new foreign workers from Bangladesh to Malaysia," he said when contacted.

He stressed that Malaysia recruited foreign workers from 14 other source countries in addition to Bangladesh and could rely more on these countries to reduce dependency on Bangladeshi workers.

Syed also highlighted that approximately 17,000 workers with approved quotas missed the deadline for entry into Malaysia due to logistical problems.

He emphasised that the issue was still unresolved and that the ongoing political instability could make it even more difficult to address.

In the meantime, he highlighted that the manufacturing sector employed over 190,000 Bangladeshi workers, the construction sector more than 285,000, the plantations sector over 30,000 and the agriculture sector more than 20,000.

He added that, in total, there were over 616,000 Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia, representing more than 34 per cent of the total foreign workforce.

Syed said when the foreign workers' term contract ended and they returned to their home country, there was no automatic replacement.

"Such was the case during Covid-19 and in 2022 there was severe shortages of foreign workers with employers reporting heavy losses.

"As an example, the plantation sector lost more than RM30 billion due to shortages of harvesters," he added.

Syed believed that revamping labour market policies could make jobs more appealing to locals.

He suggested initiatives like job rebranding and adopting new technology.

He emphasised that plantation companies that have implemented these strategies successfully attracted local workers.

Additionally, he suggested that enhancing economic relations with new partners and joining BRICS could help mitigate disruptions caused by political instability in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has been in a severe political crisis recently, leading to its Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's resignation and the formation of an interim government.

Media reports revealed that the crisis began with protests in mid-July against a Supreme Court ruling that reinstated a 30 per cent quota for descendants of independence fighters in government jobs, which many students viewed as discriminatory.

Sinar Daily previously reported that violent clashes between protesters and police resulted in over 300 deaths.

As protests escalated and reached Hasina's residence, she resigned and fled to India on Aug 5 amid calls for her ouster.

The crisis has worsened Bangladesh's economic troubles, including high youth unemployment, inflation around 10 per cent and a looming balance-of-payments crisis.

The shutdown of garment factories, a key export sector, was also impacting Western brands.

The situation remained unstable, with the military promising elections but no clear timeline, posing challenges for regional and global players.